JUDGE ORDERS BP TO PAY CLAIM CENTER’S OPERATING COSTS: U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan rules yesterday that BP must fund the claims center set up to process the billions of dollars in claims over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP argued that the Deepwater Horizon Claims Center’s request for $130 million in funding didn't provide enough information for the company to decide if the amount was reasonable, but Shushan disagreed, calling BP’s refusal to provide the funds “unreasonable.” Shushan concluded that, while BP may have legitimate complaints about the claims center’s administrative spending, the company has never before “challenged or disapproved of the Claims Administrator's proposed budget.” She ordered BP to pay the center’s third quarter expenses by Aug. 12, and said the center must provide its quarterly budget proposals to BP 60 days in advance from now on. Shushan’s ruling: http://politico.pro/145p0Vc

Swift justice: BP quickly appealed the ruling to District Judge Carl Barbier, who is overseeing the sprawling lawsuits regarding the spill, but after a speedy hearing yesterday Barbier affirmed Shushan’s decision.

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Larger context: Pros will remember that last month Barbier appointed FBI Director Louis Freeh to investigate BP's allegations of misconduct by a lawyer working on spill claims. BP’s request for a temporary halt to claims payments while the matter is looked into was shot down, but BP says it has new evidence of more alleged conflicts of interest and misconduct and has again asked the court to stop payments. Barbier has not yet ruled on the new request. BP’s on the PR offensive as well; the company has set up a hotline for reports of claims fraud, and it recently took out ads in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times headlined, “What’s happening to BP is bad for American business.”

LAC-MEGANTIC RAIL COMPANY FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY: Via the AP: “A rail company whose runaway oil train caused a fire and explosion that killed 47 people in a small town in Canada filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and Canada on Wednesday, and an attorney said he expects company executives to explore putting it up for sale within weeks. In its filings, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd. and its Canadian counterpart, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Canada Co., cited debts to more than 200 creditors following the disaster in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. Attorney Peter Flowers, who represents 30 of the victims’ families, accused company Chairman Ed Burkhardt of trying to use the legal system to shield his companies from legal responsibility.” AP: http://bit.ly/15cgEv7

INTERIOR WATCHDOG: CUT FUNDING TO OKLAHOMA AGENCY: The Interior Department’s inspector general is recommending the federal Office of Surface Mining cut off some grant funding for the Oklahoma Department of Mines after finding "serious compliance and enforcement problems" in a program intended to restore mined land to the previous topography. OSM’s efforts to address the problem “have been met with strong resistance from the mining industry, ODM, and certain members of Congress,” the IG’s report says. “On the other hand, affected Oklahoma residents have complained bitterly and vocally about mining companies’ noncompliance … which can affect the residents’ livelihoods and personal safety.” The report, released yesterday, asks Interior to respond within 30 days. Read: http://on.doi.gov/14kSZfZ

INSIDE KEYSTONE SPLIT AMONG SCIENTISTS: The journal Nature wades into the long-simmering debate between scientists who agree that Keystone XL is “game over” for the planet and others who say focusing on that one pipeline is distracting from bigger climate change concerns. “Many climate and energy researchers have lined up with environmentalists to oppose what is by all accounts a dirty source of petroleum … But other researchers say that the Keystone controversy is diverting attention from issues that would have much greater impact on greenhouse-gas emissions, such as the use of coal. … Many researchers who have sided with environmentalists on Keystone acknowledge that the decision is mostly symbolic. But in the absence of other action, says Harvard's [David] Keith, it is important to get people involved and to send industry a message that the world is moving towards cleaner fuels, not dirtier ones.” Nature: http://bit.ly/145ivlk

TESLA SURPRISES WALL STREET: Electric carmaker Tesla Motors surprised Wall Street today by posting a profit of $26 million, or 20 cents per share, in the second quarter, excluding one-time items. That’s up from the first quarter, when it posted its first-ever quarterly profit of $15 million. Analysts had expected the company to post a loss in the second quarter of 20 cents per share, according to Bloomberg. On a GAAP basis, the company posted a loss of $30.5 million, well below the $105.6 million loss it posted the same quarter a year earlier. “Our financial position and balance sheet have never been stronger,” Tesla Chairman and CEO Elon Musk and CFO Deepak Ahuja wrote in a letter to shareholders: http://bit.ly/1ccVkPT

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Where did we put out green visor… Slate’s Matthew Yglesias explains what’s going on with the GAAP/non-GAAP figures. “The basic issue is that Tesla's cars are near-universally praised but also very expensive. So to help put people in cars, Tesla rolled out an innovative loan/purchase/buyback scheme that lets people basically lease the cars but with Tesla getting all the money up front via a financing arrangement with Wells Fargo or US Bank. GAAP rules, however, require Tesla to account for this like a lease with money coming in dribs and drabs over the course of the three-year term covered by the buyback guarantee. Measured in those GAAP terms, Tesla lost money. Their preferred non-GAAP measure asks a bit more simplistically ‘did we add more money to the bank account by selling cars than we spent building cars?’ and the answer is ‘yes.’” http://slate.me/15bOrED

QUICK HITS

— Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Greenpeace are teaming up to deal with radioactive groundwater leaking from Fukushima into the Pacific. Bloomberg: http://bloom.bg/1etGq3u

— Yemen says it stopped an al-Qaeda plat to seize an oil export terminal and an LNG facility. Bloomberg: http://bloom.bg/1esgbdL

— Civic groups in Kosovo want the U.S. to pressure the World Bank into withholding funding for a new coal-fired power plant there. Reuters: http://reut.rs/13MfPJY

— In case you were wondering, Sen. Jim Inhofe will run for a fourth term in 2014. Oklahoman: http://bit.ly/143bYYd

THAT’S ALL FOR ME. Have a great day.

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Authors:

About The Author

Alex Guillén is an energy reporter for POLITICO Pro, where he covers EPA, regulations and coal, as well as lobbying and campaign finance in the energy realm. He previously wrote the Morning Energy newsletter. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., with a degree in anthropology and English. He is an avid reader and TV binger. The Delawarean, thrilled that there are finally Capriotti’s outposts in Washington, lives in Alexandria, Va.